In The News

What are we buying when we buy a luxury good? Are we buying a brand name, a well-made product, or an item to ensure that others think a certain way about us when they see it? For most high-end consumers, it’s probably some combination of those options.

Many customers would claim that they buy only for the quality that these products provide, but the reaction of some customers to the recent announcement of Jimmy Choo’s collaboration with H&M seems to run contrary to those claims. Some people were excited to see what the partnership would create, but many Choo loyalists voiced the opinion that the brand was losing something by creating a temporary line for a low-end retailer.

Choo’s fans aren’t the first to scowl at the idea of their favorite label creating an inexpensive product line, and they’ll be far from the last. What seems to be unique about this occasion, though, is that Jimmy Choo is the most broadly known brand yet to dabble in mass-market, low-price retail. So far, many small or independent designers have used the tactic as a way to broaden their name recognition and, potentially, their customer base. Choo, though, is a brand with a pretty clear image in the minds of most women with any sort of fashion consciousness or desire for expensive shoes.

So what happens when a brand with a large following and a seemingly healthy business decides that they want to dabble in the desires of Middle America? Well, according to Robin Givhan of the Washington Post, it means that luxury as we know it is dead.

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It is the weekend, and very rarely do I post over the weekend. However, when I came across this amazing weekend-worthy information, I couldn’t help myself. So, we all have favorite designers, but what if those designers had the opportunity to make their very own signature cocktail… what would it be? Turns out, Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch and Ralph Lauren have all taken time out of their fabulously fashionable schedules to create their signature cocktails.

Marc Jacobs put together a spin on a mint julep and created the Marc Mint Martini. Recently featured Tory Burch combined grapefruit, mango, strawberry and pineapple to make the Tory Tikki Tini. Finally, Ralph Lauren put together crushed rasberries, rum, lemon and lime juice to arrive at the delightful Ralph Rasberry Rum Punch. Not sure which you’d pick? Head to LES bar in NYC and give all three a try (don’t forget cab money). Yet, do you find yourself less than impressed with these pics? If so, tell me, what would you imagine your favorite designer putting together as *their* drink?

via NYDaily

When we brought you the news that Hermes has its own crocodile breeding farm in Australia, most of you were rather appalled. Even with us loving exotic handbags, the story seemed to hit a nerve for many. We all knew PETA would hear about this and want to respond. And they did.

Here’s what PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews had to say: The thought of purposely breeding and killing crocodiles for an outdated, overpriced handbag should make any fashionista’s skin crawl. If Hermes really wants to be a leader in the fashion industry, it should stop killing animals for cold-blooded vanity and use cruelty-free mock croc and fake snake instead. As Pink—who recently provided the voice of a computer-generated crocodile in PETA’s “Stolen for Fashion” commercial—says, “Killing animals for their skins is so disgusting that it doesn’t make me want to befriend designers who use them.”

Has Pink never worn a leather bag? We all know that PETA does not love many designers and abhors Fashion Week, like when they raided the Cavalli runway show. And now they have it out for Hermes. I can understand them not loving the idea of a crocodile farm solely for exotic Hermes Bags, but I don’t see Hermes using mock croc or fake snake ever. What do you think?

[Story via PETA Blog]

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s son, Colin Hanks, recently got engaged to publicist Samantha Bryant. And what did Rita Wilson give her future daughter-in-law? A $10,000 handbag to congratulate her. Initially a Hermes Birkin comes to mind, but there are many other handbags that she could have purchased. Not too shabby a gift. I definitely did not get a $10,000 handbag when Vlad and I got engaged, but I must say that gift is totally out of the ordinary. As is having your in-laws be Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. What guesses do you have on the gift from Rita to Samantha?

[Story via NY Post]

I have to tell you, this is a feat that I don’t think I EVER imagined would happen. Back in 2005 Vlad and I started Purse Blog as a fun side project after my career ending sports injury and attempt to find something ‘new’ to do. Both Vlad and I wanted something to work on together and that ended up being Purse Blog. We never imagined our site would grow to be what it is today, reaching over 20,000 visitors everyday. After we started the blog Vlad introduced me to the idea of a forum. I had never been on an online discussion board but I thought it would be great idea to have a place for other handbag lovers to convene. A month after we started the Purse Forum we had 200 members.

Now, less than four years after we started the Purse Forum, which has become known as tPF, we are nearing our 200,000th member. This number is beyond staggering, beyond amazing, and we are so thrilled to be part of such an amazing forum. While hugely vast in size, there is still a close knit community which has become one of the most active forums on the web. The importance of tPF in the handbag and fashion community continues to come to life every day, with more designers and companies realizing the impact of the forum. For us, the entire journey is something we have loved every minute of, no matter how many Nike Shoe spammers hit our forum at the wee hours of the morning (really, what is up with them?!).

Thank you to every single one of you who visits our blog, visits our forum, and helps us continue to grow to be the leading source in handbags and fashion. Who knows how quickly the 200,000th member will come now, I am thinking to pull an all-nighter with a bag of popcorn and celebrate this monumental moment!

Again, thank you to every one of you who make this blog and forum what it is!

♥ The Purse Blog and Purse Forum Team
Megs, Vlad, Shannon, Amanda, Anna, Amanda (Swanky Mama of Three), and the entire Mod team!

The economy may be hurting world wide, but those that love Hermes are still buying. In fact, Hermes has resorted to breeding its own crocodiles on farms in Australia to meet the demand for its exotic bags. It is reported that Hermes makes around 3,000 crocodile bags every year and demand continues to grow while the crocodiles are not readily available to fill orders. It can take three to four crocodiles to make one Hermes bag, so the move to use their own farms makes sense.

While other brands are hurting, Hermes continues to churn sales increases. Along with their own crocodile farms in Australia, Hermes is also hiring an additional 50-100 leather workers to join the staff of 2,000 in Paris. What does this mean for us? An easier change to purchase a Hermes crocodile bag, if we have the funds to do so.

[Story via Reuters]

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As the economy has cratered and more or less stayed that way, we have begun to hear more and more from designers (and their PR companies) about the new way we should be looking at fashion – as an investment in our futures. People have used the “investment” excuse to justify the money they spend on bags for years, but as conspicuous consumption of luxury good contracts at an even greater rate than across-the-board retail spending, brands and their mouthpieces have looked to the word as a possible way to pry the remaining dollars out of consumers’ wallets. Lesley Blume of Slate’s finance blog The Big Money has the breakdown on exactly why the fashion-as-investment logic just doesn’t hold.

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I can’t decide if this news is counter-intuitive or not, but Forbes is reporting that Hermes will post an increase in sales during the first quarter of 2009, a time when many retailers and brands were feeling a big-time sales crunch. Why is that?

Well, the sales increase isn’t worldwide. Sales fell modestly in Europe and experienced a double-digit decline in luxury-goods-obsessed Japan, but the brand saw increases large enough in non-Japanese Asia to more than make up for decreases elsewhere. The increases were seen mostly in South Korea and China, which many industry watchers regard as somewhat of a Last Frontier of luxury retail.

So what does this tell us? First of all, we should all remember that signs of strength in the global economy probably mean good things for those of us in America. Our economy is incredibly interconnected with those of other nations, particularly China, and we can’t start to make a significant recovery without signs that are trading partners are also ready to move forward economically. Sales increases of luxury goods mean that consumers in other countries feel confident in the direction in which the economy is headed, and maybe a little bit of that consumer confidence will rub off on other markets. Lastly, it’s a good reminder to all businesses that there are still markets out there that are spending money. Finding them may be a challenge, but it can and will be done. So congratulations, Hermes, on a game well played.

Article via Forbes.com

In response to some tough economic circumstances, Henri Bendel’s parent-company CEO Leslie Wexner has opted to eschew the luxury apparel market in favor of focusing their stores only on accessories, beauty products, and gifts. Bendel’s is one of the first major luxury retailers to make such a drastic move to improve their business models in the country’s current economic climate, and one has to wonder – will the risk pay off?

Read on!

There has been an interesting discussion taking part on Purse Forum on a news clip. ABC popped into Hermes on Madison Avenue in NYC and spoke with the Hermes-god-placed-on-Earth himself, Claude Gandrille. I was shocked to see Claude on ABC speaking about Hermes, as the brand is so secretive and keeps mum about their happenings. Furthermore Claude is rather quiet himself, typically found diligently working in his back right corner of the shop. But they got an interview with Claude. Somehow a slew of video cameras came into Hermes as well, when a simple movement of your camera phone on any other day will send the security upon you in less than 10 seconds. Read our full review...